nate soares / aella megameetup story

    11:46AM Feb 23, 2023

    Speakers:

    Keywords:

    miri

    suarez

    aronson

    ala

    people

    nate

    math

    rationalist

    true believer

    phd

    table

    question

    thought

    crypto

    person

    sex worker

    holy shit

    mirai

    scott

    magenta

    So I actually have a funny Nate's were a story and I'm uploaded to otter pseudo transcript, but I think it's just funny or spoken aloud. So, at the 2021 Austin mega meetup, which we called the a limited because she put it on her Twitter, and people came there thinking that it was about her and about sex workers, hence why they asked a mother holding her baby, if she was a sex worker. Date Suarez was there, as were a couple of other big names that didn't know. And here's why I didn't know this. It was very easy to find a law. It was set up in a park. Now, you've if you've been to just about any park, you're probably familiar with those Park tables that they have that are made of cement that you can't really move. You either know what I'm talking about, or you don't, but they're these they're these fairly large cement tables that tend to be in parks. And they had set up a canopy at one table, and that was the center table. And then there were other canopies. But ala was sitting at the center of the center table in the canopy, so she was literally in the center of the center at an event that she advertised as a time to meet her. I not only this, she was this centered at the event while wearing a dress that looked vaguely regal. She wore the same dress and her Heredia con speech, I think you can Google that.

    I recognize that dress. And she was, if you could picture this. Literally fanning herself with a [EDIT: MEANT TO SAY "like she had an"] old school aristocratic fan. It was absurd. This was the same event where a low was described as a goddess by the way.

    And she had set up the center table where it was mostly women. And if you're familiar with any nerd event, ever, you know that a table of women has the kind of social force field around it. That doesn't exist, like in other areas of society. So you can't just approach the table and talk like you could normal people because in this setting, they're like, practically an aristocracy. I wasn't sure who all the women at alias table were. And it didn't bother approaching any of them to talk because it felt like approaching Regina George's table honestly, like, I would just get a side glance, and they would keep talking about whatever they did probably. I did meet some interesting people there though. I met Scott Aronson, who is an extremely humble person, but also one of the most visibly Sperg people I have ever met in my life. The man could not stop looking down at his shoes. He struggled to maintain very basic eye contact, and would stutter. And it was I mean, you kind of just there's no way you could feel sorry. There's no you can not feel sorry for the guy in some way. It was really difficult to hate him because he obviously had visible social difficulties. Not that I have any reason to hate Scott Aronson, it's just that like, man, holy shit. It's like some people have really bad BO. You just get within their radius. And you're like, What the fuck did I just smell? Well, Scott Aronson doesn't have BO, but he has that kind of Sperg. In interacting with him. I told him that I admired the [EDIT: social commentary work] that he did on his blog. Even though I didn't understand his computer science work at all. I shook his hand and shaking his hand was as awkward as I thought it was going to be. So this isn't an expo Zeon Scott Aronson, I'm not saying, you know, I wouldn't I mean, I'm sure Scott Aronson knows this. So I had no reason to be like, by the way, do Did you know that you're super awkward to talk to in real life? Because you have these very springy mannerisms? Like, I'm sure he knows. So it'd be rude of me to say that, but yeah, I mean, I don't feel like I'm revealing anything. That's the secret here. Anyway, lots of other people were there. The I constantly forget her name. It's live something but she is a poker player. And she is into physics and a Uh, she was the only hot chick there. Or, or rather, I should say she was the only chick that I actually turned my head to see. Because I had never seen a woman in the rationality scene with a body that looked like, sculpted. So that was the first time I'd ever actually check somebody out in the rationalist sphere. Or, no, sorry, no, that's not true. The first time I did was when I was helping Ayla move, and she had this very ripped guy named Max help move our stuff or sorry, her stuff. Got a bit communist there. That was the first time I check somebody out in the rat this but this live character was the second time. Also, just on balance, the max character who helped ala move is orders of magnitude hotter than the live character. Just in case anybody's wondering. He's into really stupid crypto shit. He gives off really weird vibes. But God damn is hot. And he can lift almost as much as me, which is hot in and of itself, because I am always attracted anybody who would kill me. Though the crypto thing is kind of a deal breaker anyway. He was there too. Hot moving guy was there. Luke live was there. Scott Aronson was there. And then also, Nate Suarez was there. And I had two friends in this community who I will not name because I, their privacy doesn't need to be compromised. And I know that they value that. But I will describe their relevant attributes. One of them have a lot of faith in Miri and less wrong and the rationalist community and the kind of ethos that it promotes. And the other also did but was really good at math. And was considering getting a PhD in math and could very easily actually. And was juggling that between that and a high paying tech job. When I suggested that he pursued a PhD in math. He said, Thanks, mom, which kind of implies that, you know, this has been suggested several times over. This man I should mention also, despite being very good at math was one of the most mature people I've ever met in my life relative to his age. I thought he was my age. I thought he was in his 30s. But he was about 24. So as far as people being advanced for their age, he's probably the most advanced person I've met relative to their age ever. He would just analyze situations in a way that you just do when you're older. It's hard to explain, you know when you see it. So Nate Suarez. He is a very tiny person. I didn't recognize him because he was, first of all, he wasn't around a lot at all during the event. And second of all, he was wearing magenta pajamas or sweatpants. I can't tell which they were definitely magenta. Casual, fluffy pants, like pajamas or sweatpants and definitely, definitely magenta. And they only remember his pants because they match so poorly with his top and I thought who did not tell him that? But I didn't know that was Nate Suarez, head of Miri I thought that that was a hippie who came here because they heard about the ALA meetup. So remember, I have these two friends one is a very brilliant and mature math guy who should probably get a PhD in math. The other is a true believer. There they're dating. At least they were of this time. I don't know how their relationship has changed. I haven't checked in maybe things changed. I don't know. It's their business. But yeah, they were dating and the other one was a true believer in the ethos of less wrong and marry and so forth. Okay, so here's what I mean by true believer. I started questioning the research of Mirai and the output of Marissa and their funds. Miri is the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, which is the thing that Eliezer Yudkowsky has been leading and pushing for years and years and years and years, which started off as the singularity Institute for Singularity University or something like that I forget. And there are many, many people on the payroll who don't do anything. And it gets a lot of funding. And so I was starting to question what are these people doing that warrants this funding? Because they have one guy, if you look, they have one guy who's a PhD in computer science. And he carries a team he is he is the Lebron of this institute, just do publishes like a beast. And then the rest of these people maybe have like one article, and then that's it. But they're on the research team, like they're on the staff, and presumably they get funding. So what are they doing? Are they just like hanging out? That was my question. Because if we discount the guy with a PhD in computer science, who's clearly caring this organization, then there's a couple of other people from the Oxford future of humanity Institute, which is a real, you know, academic Institute. And those people co authored a couple of papers, and then you have like, about seven papers, I think, from Elijah kowski, from 2017, downward. But that raises the question, What the fuck has le iser done since 2017? Like, what are these funds going to? Because the funding has only increased their budget was like, in the millions.

    And I ran through a series of questions with this person, like, why do they need this much money? How is this going to all these researchers, what are they doing with this stuff? How have they produced so little output? And one of the responses I got out of desperation was well, the rent in Berkeley was expensive. And so I googled the headquarters of Miri on Google Maps and it was next to such esteemed and prestigious buildings as Starbucks and Tuck Tuck tie. Now I'm not one to diminish the reputation of you know, such high load institutions as tuk tuk Thai, but does it warrant inclusion in the effective altruist pantheon? Like because billionaires are looking at this list of organizations to donate to and they will see Neary in that list. And Mirai is an organization that that ostensibly people with lots of money will funnel money into because of its endorsement by Effective Altruism. So I was asking, well, if if Miri is having trouble with rent than do we should we shall we also, list tuk tuk Thai and Starbucks along the effective Ultras causes obviously I'm doing a reductio here. But eventually the conversation came to the point where we had an agree to disagree moments on Well, Mary might have something cooking up in which case I said probably not. Because it's been like four years and they haven't really done anything. But Nate Suarez, the head of Mary was at this event. And the true believer in the Mary and rationalist spirit and the guy who should probably get his PhD in math who's really mature for his age. Were there to talk to Nate Torres. And the guy who should get his PhD in math. Asked Nate Suarez a bunch of math questions that I personally don't know the answer to at all because that's not my field. But and this is the the result of the impression the true believer went from Yeah, mirror he is totally having something secret under the hood that they're doing. That's amazing. To like, yeah, holy shit. Nate's warehouses full of shit. This is a train wreck reading waiting to happen. Like that impression was what they had Now, just to reiterate, I don't know why should about math, I stopped to calc one, that was enough for me. But this person is one of those talented people. One of those talents to undergraduates who, you know, really could probably be doing like first year graduate work. But they're not. Like they probably could have taken some graduate courses when they were in their last semester of college, but they didn't. So whatever, but they were they were he was that good. And, apparently, according to this instance, a person who went from marry should be defended, because the rent in Berkeley is so expensive. That person immediately pivoted to Holy shit, and it's far as is the disaster waiting to happen. Based on this interaction between the knowledgeable and mature math guy and Nate Suarez. And once more, I don't know, Nate's war is his background. I just know that he has terrible fashion sense. So Oh, and that he is a very just a tiny human. I did not expect him to be dating ALA. She looks Amazon ish standing next to him. But I mean, that kind of goes to show that she's willing to tolerate these physical I mean, she posted her physical ideal once on Twitter and it was this, like, I think a Korean bodybuilder, so probably not much different than most women. But yes, among these he spilled here. I think the as it pertains to Ala, she is willing to date a lot. Especially if it has value in climbing the social hierarchy of the areas of life that she cares about. And I'm Nate Suarez is a miniature, forgettable human who according to people who know things has wacky views that make no sense. So that's all for now, but hope you've enjoyed it. Goodbye.