Akram Akhtar Choudhary

May 10, 2024 | lesswrong.com | Akram Akhtar Choudhary

In light of all of the talk about AI, utility functions, value alignment etc. I decided to spend some time thinking about what my actual values are. I encourage you to do the same (yes both of you). Lower values on the list are less important to me but not qualitatively less important. For example some of value 2 is not worth an unbounded amount of value 3. The only exception to this is value 1 which is in fact infinitely more important to me than the others.

Mar 13, 2024 | lesswrong.com | Gerald M. Monroe |Nathan Helm-Burger |Akram Akhtar Choudhary

State monopoly:The Song Dynasty (960-1279) established a state monopoly over saltpeter production, a critical ingredient in gunpowder. The government appointed officials to oversee the collection and refinement of saltpeter. During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the government further tightened its control over saltpeter production, with the "Saltpeter Censorate" responsible for managing the state monopoly. Limiting knowledge:Chinese officials kept the recipe for gunpowder a closely guarded secret.