Travel diary, day 3
Apr. 8th, 2010 01:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xuenaySIAI House, California. April 8, 10:54 AM - 1:49 PM PDT
Yesterday, I:
- Wrote a Less Wrong post
- Wrote a first draft for an ECAP abstract submission
- Started analyzing my uncertainties re: existential risks
- Read most of Chalmers' paper on the Singularity
- Got myself in a game of Baron Munchausen, followed along to the Google hill, Stanford, Marcello and some excellent even if a bit too spicy buffalo wings
-- While there, discussed some of the emotional difficulties I have relating to x-risk prevention work
Contrary to plan, I did not:
- Write a new blog post about my experiences here, mostly because I followed along to the Google hill, Stanford, Marcello and some excellent even if a bit too spicy buffalo wings, and nobody told me beforehand that we wouldn't be back until around 2 AM or so
Today, I will:
- Continue with my analysis of the uncertainties I have regarding x-risks
- Write a new blog post about my experiences here
- Read some LW posts that I haven't gotten around reading yet, like the information theory one from a while back and Alicorn's luminosity posts
- Attend the basic math workshop
- Not entirely sure what else, maybe find something to work on from the curriculum and read some library books related to that
That was my "Daily Existential Risk Reduction Report" for today. We're all supposed to post such updates on the internal house mailing list, though some people do so with less regularity than others. Doing so helps keep everyone (as especially Anna) on track of what we're doing and how things are developing.
So yeah, like I said above, I was going to post a travel diary update yesterday, but then got dragged along on a car ride. At first the intention was to just climb on a big hill overlooking the Google headquarters and much of Mountain View, but then we ended up on a longer adventure which eventually led us to a food place at the campus of Stanford University. (Which was open at 1 AM. And sold buffalo wings and all variety of hamburgers and stuff. Helsinki student cafeterias take note.)
One snippet from a conversation on the ride:
"Hey, that's the Google headquarters! Do they take visitors?"
"No, I don't think they're open for visitors in general."
"But could we visit?"
"Sure, [mentions three or four people different people] would probably have the connections for it. I'll ask if they could get us a tour of the place for Saturday."
I love this place. And this crowd.
Incidentally, this whole place is also part of a big suburban sprawl. I didn't realize until I looked it up that Mountain View was actually a different city than Santa Clara; it certainly didn't look like we were moving between cities when we were driving there. Nor did it really feel like it when we were moving from San Fransisco to Santa Clara, either. Though this might be related to the fact that there were lots of roadside advertisements along the highway, which made it feel like it was kind of inside a city or suburban area. There aren't really any roadside advertisements along highways in Finland.
The weather is great. We went out on a walk for my ten-minute daily meeting with Anna yesterday, and it was a wonderful sunny weather there. Afterwards, I went out on a walk of my own and just enjoyed the sun. Somebody also mentioned it might be good for my skin. My skin is usually not in very good shape, so I hope it helps. During the meeting, Anna mentioned that people here tend to come up with various workshops on different topics for Sundays and tried to talk me into holding one as well. I wasn't sure of what I could hold one on, but we played "both have to take turns making one stupid suggestion at a time" and came up with some plausible candidates. Of the ones we thought up, I think "how to be open about your feelings and thoughts" would be the most useful if I could teach it, but I don't if I can teach it. I just tend to do it. Ah well, we'll see.
Gah, so many things to write about. What to mention next. Better finish my bag of blueberries before it's the daily cleaning period. From 12 to 12:15 every day, everybody goes around putting dishes and books and stuff back where they should be. And washing the dishes and stuff. Anyway, I just had for breakfast the contents of a one-pound bag of frozen blueberries. And an orange and some tea. Yesterday I started the morning with a bag of blueberries and tea, too. I think I'll do so for every day for as long as I'm here. There's a shopping list on the internal EtherPad server, if we want to have some food that's about to run out we just mark it on the shopping list and whoever goes to the grocery store next will get it. At home, I was constantly worrying about how much each purchase cost when I was getting food. Not needing to worry about that and just being able to eat when I'm hungry feels nice for a change. (Not that we'd be racking up huge food expenses, note to SIAI donors worried about reckless use of funds. I heard that the goal is to keep food expenses at $5 per day per person. Buying stuff from Costco and people making big meals for everyone helps keep costs down.)
One of the things that also feels good about being here is that I can actually concentrate on the stuff I feel is important. In college, one keeps running into the problem of there being interesting and valuable stuff one could be doing, but doesn't have the time for it because of the general course workload. (The course workload which may or may not be actually valuable, even if you try to concentrate only on the interesting courses.) Here, we can just do whatever's valuable. On the other hand, since there are daily meetings and e-mails where we briefly say what we did yesterday and what we're going to do today, there's a social incentive not to keep slacking off entirely, which helps self-discipline. Though if somebody just couldn't get anything done the previous day, that's okay too. There's no social stigma involved in admitting that - you just state that you didn't get anything done and then you say what you'll be trying to get done today.
So anyway, this realization struck me yesterday. I'd marked a bunch of stuff on my to-do list, when I ran into an article about the Singularity David Chalmers had written. Out of habit, my cached reaction to this was "oooh, interesting article! I'm going to read it! But then I'll feel guilty for not working!" And then I realized that wait, this article is directly related to what I should be doing here. And I can just read it and I can mark it as an accomplishment on my tomorrow's report. People here even mark interesting and valuable conversations they had with others as accomplishments (writing up notes about the conversations is encouraged, though not required). Reading the paper wasn't on my original plan for the day, but that doesn't matter - the plans are just plans, not hard and final commitments we need to absolutely stick to. It's great. (Or, as I should probably say, awesome. Awesome is a word that gets used here a lot.)
Alicorn = Empress Ki-lin of China
Kaj = Lord Mysterious of the Unknown Kingdom
Jasen = Prince Murry of Mariana Trench
Mike = Richard le Roi de la France
Justin = Monarch Maximus of (Inner) Mongolia
For those wondering, that was the character list for yesterday's game of The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which we played in the evening. It was great. Then I played a game of blitz go with Will, which was also fun, even if having to make moves in go without having any time for thinking made my head hurt. I'll have to see if we can get another storytelling or roleplaying game going this evening. I've written a list of the games (Universalis, Dogs in the Vineyard, Hero's Banner, Solar System) I have with me on one of the local whiteboards, and there's already a list of signups next to each name. Somebody also added Nomic and (as previously mentioned) The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen to the list. I need to try playing Nomic in real life once, I've only tried running one forum game and it got... interesting fast.
I'm pretty sure there was something else I was also going to say, but it slipped me. Ah well, if it was important I'll include it the next time.
Oh yeah. Pictures here!
Yesterday, I:
- Wrote a Less Wrong post
- Wrote a first draft for an ECAP abstract submission
- Started analyzing my uncertainties re: existential risks
- Read most of Chalmers' paper on the Singularity
- Got myself in a game of Baron Munchausen, followed along to the Google hill, Stanford, Marcello and some excellent even if a bit too spicy buffalo wings
-- While there, discussed some of the emotional difficulties I have relating to x-risk prevention work
Contrary to plan, I did not:
- Write a new blog post about my experiences here, mostly because I followed along to the Google hill, Stanford, Marcello and some excellent even if a bit too spicy buffalo wings, and nobody told me beforehand that we wouldn't be back until around 2 AM or so
Today, I will:
- Continue with my analysis of the uncertainties I have regarding x-risks
- Write a new blog post about my experiences here
- Read some LW posts that I haven't gotten around reading yet, like the information theory one from a while back and Alicorn's luminosity posts
- Attend the basic math workshop
- Not entirely sure what else, maybe find something to work on from the curriculum and read some library books related to that
That was my "Daily Existential Risk Reduction Report" for today. We're all supposed to post such updates on the internal house mailing list, though some people do so with less regularity than others. Doing so helps keep everyone (as especially Anna) on track of what we're doing and how things are developing.
So yeah, like I said above, I was going to post a travel diary update yesterday, but then got dragged along on a car ride. At first the intention was to just climb on a big hill overlooking the Google headquarters and much of Mountain View, but then we ended up on a longer adventure which eventually led us to a food place at the campus of Stanford University. (Which was open at 1 AM. And sold buffalo wings and all variety of hamburgers and stuff. Helsinki student cafeterias take note.)
One snippet from a conversation on the ride:
"Hey, that's the Google headquarters! Do they take visitors?"
"No, I don't think they're open for visitors in general."
"But could we visit?"
"Sure, [mentions three or four people different people] would probably have the connections for it. I'll ask if they could get us a tour of the place for Saturday."
I love this place. And this crowd.
Incidentally, this whole place is also part of a big suburban sprawl. I didn't realize until I looked it up that Mountain View was actually a different city than Santa Clara; it certainly didn't look like we were moving between cities when we were driving there. Nor did it really feel like it when we were moving from San Fransisco to Santa Clara, either. Though this might be related to the fact that there were lots of roadside advertisements along the highway, which made it feel like it was kind of inside a city or suburban area. There aren't really any roadside advertisements along highways in Finland.
The weather is great. We went out on a walk for my ten-minute daily meeting with Anna yesterday, and it was a wonderful sunny weather there. Afterwards, I went out on a walk of my own and just enjoyed the sun. Somebody also mentioned it might be good for my skin. My skin is usually not in very good shape, so I hope it helps. During the meeting, Anna mentioned that people here tend to come up with various workshops on different topics for Sundays and tried to talk me into holding one as well. I wasn't sure of what I could hold one on, but we played "both have to take turns making one stupid suggestion at a time" and came up with some plausible candidates. Of the ones we thought up, I think "how to be open about your feelings and thoughts" would be the most useful if I could teach it, but I don't if I can teach it. I just tend to do it. Ah well, we'll see.
Gah, so many things to write about. What to mention next. Better finish my bag of blueberries before it's the daily cleaning period. From 12 to 12:15 every day, everybody goes around putting dishes and books and stuff back where they should be. And washing the dishes and stuff. Anyway, I just had for breakfast the contents of a one-pound bag of frozen blueberries. And an orange and some tea. Yesterday I started the morning with a bag of blueberries and tea, too. I think I'll do so for every day for as long as I'm here. There's a shopping list on the internal EtherPad server, if we want to have some food that's about to run out we just mark it on the shopping list and whoever goes to the grocery store next will get it. At home, I was constantly worrying about how much each purchase cost when I was getting food. Not needing to worry about that and just being able to eat when I'm hungry feels nice for a change. (Not that we'd be racking up huge food expenses, note to SIAI donors worried about reckless use of funds. I heard that the goal is to keep food expenses at $5 per day per person. Buying stuff from Costco and people making big meals for everyone helps keep costs down.)
One of the things that also feels good about being here is that I can actually concentrate on the stuff I feel is important. In college, one keeps running into the problem of there being interesting and valuable stuff one could be doing, but doesn't have the time for it because of the general course workload. (The course workload which may or may not be actually valuable, even if you try to concentrate only on the interesting courses.) Here, we can just do whatever's valuable. On the other hand, since there are daily meetings and e-mails where we briefly say what we did yesterday and what we're going to do today, there's a social incentive not to keep slacking off entirely, which helps self-discipline. Though if somebody just couldn't get anything done the previous day, that's okay too. There's no social stigma involved in admitting that - you just state that you didn't get anything done and then you say what you'll be trying to get done today.
So anyway, this realization struck me yesterday. I'd marked a bunch of stuff on my to-do list, when I ran into an article about the Singularity David Chalmers had written. Out of habit, my cached reaction to this was "oooh, interesting article! I'm going to read it! But then I'll feel guilty for not working!" And then I realized that wait, this article is directly related to what I should be doing here. And I can just read it and I can mark it as an accomplishment on my tomorrow's report. People here even mark interesting and valuable conversations they had with others as accomplishments (writing up notes about the conversations is encouraged, though not required). Reading the paper wasn't on my original plan for the day, but that doesn't matter - the plans are just plans, not hard and final commitments we need to absolutely stick to. It's great. (Or, as I should probably say, awesome. Awesome is a word that gets used here a lot.)
Alicorn = Empress Ki-lin of China
Kaj = Lord Mysterious of the Unknown Kingdom
Jasen = Prince Murry of Mariana Trench
Mike = Richard le Roi de la France
Justin = Monarch Maximus of (Inner) Mongolia
For those wondering, that was the character list for yesterday's game of The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which we played in the evening. It was great. Then I played a game of blitz go with Will, which was also fun, even if having to make moves in go without having any time for thinking made my head hurt. I'll have to see if we can get another storytelling or roleplaying game going this evening. I've written a list of the games (Universalis, Dogs in the Vineyard, Hero's Banner, Solar System) I have with me on one of the local whiteboards, and there's already a list of signups next to each name. Somebody also added Nomic and (as previously mentioned) The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen to the list. I need to try playing Nomic in real life once, I've only tried running one forum game and it got... interesting fast.
I'm pretty sure there was something else I was also going to say, but it slipped me. Ah well, if it was important I'll include it the next time.
Oh yeah. Pictures here!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
:)
Date: 2010-04-08 09:05 pm (UTC)toodles!
Lani
Re: :)
Date: 2010-04-08 09:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-08 10:17 pm (UTC)Take a picture of yourself every day to keep track of changes.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-09 11:01 pm (UTC)