The contaminated soil passes the prions. There is not too many things that can do much other that heat and some acids. Heat is viable by it requires massive amount of energy. Maybe small area or few miles as parameter combined with fences.
The kalahari bushman had a trick to stay cool on a hot day: dig a sand pit in the shade, put in the fibrous bits of inedible plant material, pee on them, lay down in the pit and cover up with sand and wait until the evening cooled things down.
And the story this was inspired by in particular is called “Cookies”:
Toad makes very good cookies and he and frog can’t stop eating them. “We need willpower!” they say.
So they put the cookies in a box. But they realize they can just open it, so they tie it with string and put it on a high shelf. But they realize they can get it down so Frog goes outside and scatters the cookie and birds eat them all.
There says Frog “now we have lots and lots of willpower!”
Toad is upset. “You can keep your willpower Frog. I am going home to bake a cake!”
I just recently saw that story in a book. What was it... Oh yes, it was in "Situated" by Angela Duckworth (of "Grit" fame). That's the gist of the book. Frog and Toad changed their situation rather than the downstream thoughts or behaviors (through willpower). Make it harder to do (friction up) what you don't want to do and make it easier (friction down) to do what you want to do.
You should pick up a collection of Frog and Toad stories. I read them because I have little kids, but they are genuinely great little with stories. The stories are simple, but it is amazing how well developed the two characters are, and how they play off each other in different situations.
Arnold Lobel is also just very funny. Grasshopper on the Road made me laugh out loud the first time I read it my kids. The opening story about beetles that love morning ("The Club") feels so timely.
Life is a bit easier when we see the conditions that lead to the undesirable outcomes, and so much harder when we aspire to perfect ourselves and use moral strength to over come our weaknesses. Like my mom always said of parenting, "Make it easy to be good." - works for self-management as well, and is much more relaxing and happy than constantly trying to grind or improve.
Grifters don’t usually spend their entire lives devoted to preparing for something that doesn’t yet exist, giving up whatever else they like doing to work on that problem, and spending years trying to plan out how to make things go well for everyone when that thing materializes.
Grifters are opportunistic short-termists. Whatever you can say about these rationalists, they aren’t that.
Eliezer spent his life devoted to science fiction and building a cult around himself, and now him and the rest of them are trying to vindicate themselves before they fade into obscurity.
> AI capability is limited by AI safety in the way the power of a rifle is limited by how safe it is to use
But merely making it safe to use still prevents unnecessary death. And advocacy against rifles in general, or general gun safety is a viable path to limiting the negative outcomes.
Rifles are banned in many places on Earth and they also backfire and misfire less than they used to.
Even so, you can do the simple "call your representative" and "hand out fliers" and "talk to people about how AI is net negative" with no cost to yourself and it absolutely aligns with your fundamental beliefs, right?
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