Seth Baum
@SethBaum
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Executive Director @GCRInstitute. Affiliate @CSERCambridge. Tweets my own. Mastodon: @[email protected]
NJ/Metro New York City
Joined July 2009
Personal update: I’m moving back to NYC. I had been living in the NJ suburbs. Go figure my move would coincide with AI issues blowing up. I hope to comment further on AI, and a list of other things (including why I’m moving back to NYC) but for now I’m stuck packing boxes etc.
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Tagging some who may wish to see the GCRI Statement on Race & Intelligence (re: Bostrom).@webmasterdave @rifish @amy_harmon @mjgault @neuwaves @xriskology @DanLaddenHall @rossgritz @RYChappell @matthijsMmaas.
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Tagging some who may wish to see the GCRI Statement on Race & Intelligence (re: Bostrom).@S_OhEigeartaigh @HaydnBelfield @OweAndrea @rumtin @tegmark @MeiaTegmark @AnthonyNAguirre @JessicaH_Newman @YolandaLannqist @laramani14 @jonasschuett @peterwildeford .
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Tagging some who may wish to see the GCRI Statement on Race & Intelligence (re: Bostrom).@FHIOxford @CSERCambridge @FLIxrisk @GPIOxford @thefuturesoc @RethinkPriors @open_phil @anderssandberg @tobyordoxford @OwainEvans_UK .
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@GCRInstitute intends to continue to address racism & support a more diverse field of global catastrophic risk. We welcome anyone’s interest in partnering with us on this.
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Racism is important in its own right and it weakens society’s ability to address other issues, including global catastrophic risk. All of us, including those who strongly identify as “not racist”, have work to do on this.
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The field of global catastrophic risk should take the occasion to improve its handling of racial issues. Ditto for related fields & communities. See the statement for specific suggestions and links, drawing on experience from other fields.
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Bostrom is Director of a research group. All organization leaders should understand issues of racism. It is important for hiring, team building, and external relations. Bostrom’s conduct falls woefully short. Some process is needed to address this.
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The senior scholar in question is Professor Nick Bostrom. The matter has already been discussed at length on this website, for example in this very thoughtful comment by @FreshMangoLassi:.
In my view, this email would have been offensive in the 90s and it is offensive now, for good reason. The apology fails badly to fully take responsibility or display an understanding of the harm the views expressed represent. 🧵.
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Caveat: “race” and “intelligence” are not well-defined constructs that can be reliably measured in the first place.
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Modern science points to non-genetic factors, e.g. systemic racism, as explaining racial differences in intelligence. Additionally, society has harmful biases that underestimate the intelligence that people of marginalized races actually have.
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For centuries, the idea of innate racial differences in intelligence has been used to justify the political domination of one race (typically White/European) over another. This led to colonial subjugation (“White man’s burden”) and even genocide.
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Thread. In a new statement, my organization @GCRInstitute addresses the harmful & scientifically dubious idea of a genetic basis of racial differences in intelligence. It is prompted by recent remarks from a senior scholar in our field.
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Some active on Turnpike expansion who might note my article: @TurnpikeTrap @NJSierraClub @bikejc @BlueWave_NJ @bikehoboken @SustainableJC @hudcostreets @SolomonforJC @DavisForBayonne @NicholasJSacco @KMRalph @HarsCoveAssoc @libertyparknj @ps5pta.
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Thanks @SafeStreetsJC for this kind remark, and for your leadership on this issue.
@NJ_Opinion Great honest look at the challenges and downsides of pinning all our hopes on electric cars and trucks. From the health hazards of tire particulates and noise pollution to the inefficient geometry for the densest state in the country vs transit, biking, and walking 👏👏👏.
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BTW @UrbanJerseyGuy also makes videos, including a great one on Jersey City. I still can’t believe it said “Jersey pilled”. That’s a keeper.
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My favorite proposal is this bus rapid transit scheme from @UrbanJerseyGuy. This seems like the right basic idea to me. I hope to elaborate in future writing.
Here's my crayon map for a BRT system that could make use of 2 lanes of the Holland tunnel and serve as a "pre-rail supplement". The assumption being we want to move a large number of people across the largest metropolitan area in the US rather than a small number of cars.
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@RobMenendez4NJ has an interesting proposal to use the expanded Turnpike extension for bus rapid transit. I like the creative thinking, but my view is that this doesn’t go far enough to advance transit, e.g. doesn’t address the Holland Tunnel bottleneck.
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So if not expanding the Turnpike extension, what to do instead? That’s not the focus of my article, and not exactly my expertise, but here are some thoughts.
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