[dotsam]

Tegmark’s institution is the Future of Life Institute, this is the Oxford Future of Humanity Institute.

Tegmark’s institute is well-funded, apparently largely due to a big crypto donation from Vitalik Buterin. https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/25/a-665m-crypto-war-c...

[swyx]

why do people not like Max Tegmark? he was kind of a rockstar at NeurIPS

[nybsjytm]

That reflects kind of badly on NeurIPS if true. I first became aware of him over 10-15 years ago when he was pushing his "mathematical universe" idea, which is quite simply the most vapid and contentless idea I've ever seen in physics. (I don't think it's at all surprising that someone like him would be drawn to the AI community, or vice versa!)

[zehaeva]

I like the guy, but I do think he's nutty over the level of multiverse he believes in.

[gojomo]

My read is that some former fans strongly disagree with, and are thus disappointed by, Tegmark's recent enthusiasm for "AI will kill us all" arguments, & advocacy of strong/intrusive policies against AI progress.

[VirusNewbie]

I’m a huge fan in general, but some of his arguments are sloppier than others.

[cma]

I think it's maybe that he kind of rebranded modal realism into his own concept.

[karma_pharmer]

Well, he published a nonfiction book, the best part of which is the first chapter which consists of literally a fiction story.

He also has some serious problems with blinders, but they're the same blinders HN has so if I explain any further this post will get flagged, flogged, deleted, and downvoted. Ah well.