this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2024
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SneerClub

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Hurling ordure at the TREACLES, especially those closely related to LessWrong.

AI-Industrial-Complex grift is fine as long as it sufficiently relates to the AI doom from the TREACLES. (Though TechTakes may be more suitable.)

This is sneer club, not debate club. Unless it's amusing debate.

[Especially don't debate the race scientists, if any sneak in - we ban and delete them as unsuitable for the server.]

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Nick Bostrom irked that Oxford University expected his institute to produce work that was of a standard appropriate to its position in their philosophy department (awful.systems)
submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Surprised they didn't just do the agile thing and seek direct financial support from Peter Thiel.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Oxford instituted a fundraising freeze. They knew the org could have gotten oodles funding from any number of strange tech people, they disliked it so much they didn't care.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I wonder how much they disliked it and how much they felt it was just using the Oxford brand and cheapening it. Only a slight but a qualitative difference. You can pump out all the awful shit you want at Oxford, but cheapen the brand with the increasingly zany antics of your dorky club and they might at least look twice.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Has Oxford gone after the Scientologists calling their personality quiz the “Oxford Capacity Assessment” or something similar?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

That's named after Oxford, MS, wink wink

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I would guess that their personal reach over the name is pretty limited by a number of factors, including that the town itself has quite a significant similar claim itself. “Oxford Brookes” university, for example, is not a part of Oxford the Ancient University, but it certainly helps their brand to be next door (and as far as I know it’s a perfectly fine institution as far as these things go).

The issue with the Future of Humanity Institute would be almost the other way around: that as long as it’s in-house, the university can hardly dissociate themselves from it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

formerly Oxford Polytechnic, then universitised in 1992

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

I mean they could have cut ties entirely with Oxford.