Physicist, teacher, analyst & advocate in tech, arms control & human security. Idea man. Your broken Overton window is blighting the neighborhood. Dr./Dude/Dad
Apr 2, 2023 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
If AI alignment is incoherent [align to what?], what should be the guiding principle for AI safety?
A decade ago, in "The Principle of Humanity in Conflict," I argued that opposition to killer robots should be rooted in the ancient Principle of Humanity, +icrac.net/the-principle-…
which in Law of War is usually translated as No Needless Cruelty, but can be understood more generally as the unarguable fact that We Are All Human, which we lose sight of when we commit atrocities.
I argued that from this principle we can derive a set of principles: +
Jun 17, 2021 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
So @WardHayesWilson replies to this tweet of mine faulting me for not reading him & accusing me of "trying to incite arguments." Says I'll find "a full reply to your position" in a series of essays on @inkstickmedia. So, here's a partial reply to that.+
First, we totally agree that the elimination of nuclear weapons is realistic & essential, and its achievement is mostly a matter of changing minds. We disagree slightly on the rhetoric that will be most effective in changing them. +
Jan 20, 2021 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
This is a common & persistent misconception. The rate at which new mutations occur & the rate at which they spread into the community has 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 to do with any "pressure on the virus". The virus does not know it is under "pressure" & does not do anything differently. +
New variants which may be more infectious or resistant to immune response or treatment will spread into the population as if the older variants aren't there at all. The different strains are not in direct competition the way animal & plant populations are in the wild. +
Sep 19, 2018 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
Proponents of #SpaceForce think big. They thing space is big. But for security, #space is notably small. I explain.
Earth's land surface is divided into national territories. They're big enough to hide & hoard stuff & they can be controlled & defended by local regimes. +
This applies to national airspace, too. It is actually becoming easier for nations to defend their airspace. As long as nations stay out of each others' airspace (without permission) there is no problem. But above 100 km or so this changes entirely. +
