site banner
Goodguy  7hr ago (text post)   Edited 4hr ago   3345 thread views

Midterms Megathread

Cause otherwise midterms discussion will be scattered around a bunch of separate Culture War thread posts. And it's nice to have more off-the-cuff rapid reactions in a dedicated megathread.

The first thing I've noticed so far: if the exit polls are correct, Americans are very pessimistic about AI.

Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Hot damn. I overindexed on the opinions of this place and didn't believe the polls. What a pleasant surprise.

So, any predictions on what positive things will happen as a result of these elections?

Yes, the Republicans will reorganize and be ready for national level elections in 2036. Hopefully there is a country still existing and fixable by then.

I guess it's important to hang on to hope, but after watching Republican rank and file steamroll the establishment through Trump, only to end up with standard neocon rule at the end of it, leaves me feeling rather deflated.

Yeah, you said it.

Oh, another positive thing is that no US president will seriously consider messing with Iran for the next few decades at least. This is a positive thing, for Iran!

It's more likely we will get meaningful federal AI regulations, though likely two parts datacenter water regulation for every one part meaningful.

what does "meaningful federal AI regulations" look like, leaving aside the water parts?

I’m more curious to know how these regulatory mechanisms will be enforced. Because without that, these are all just declarations, not regulations or treaties.

What would be an example of meaningful AI regulations?

E.g. from Scott Wiener (likely replacing Pelosi) and his SB 1047:

  • Mandatory safety classifiers
  • Mandatory predeployment assessments
  • Kill switch
  • Whistleblower protections
  • Compute KYC

Just a start (and Newsom vetoed it), but it can be the basis for future legislation as AI continues to rise in salience.

Half of them sound like a horrible dystopian nightmare, but I suppose that does make them meaningful!

Look, I’d been telling you Talarico would win. I’m surprised and despairing that Abbott lost, Hinojosa is literally worse on the issues than Lula or Ramaphosa. But I told you it might happen.

I thought we all knew it was going to be a strong night for Democrats, and the only question was how strong?

It seems like it has been a very strong night indeed, which is certainly good news for them, but within my range of expected outcomes.

I couldn’t believe that there were people here who thought Republicans weren’t going to get killed and that the Iran War wasn’t a huge mistake for their re-election prospects. All the evidence pointed to the total opposite. I don’t understand how they thought that.

What are you talking about? I've been informed here on a weekly basis that we had achieved a TOTAL VICTORY over Iran and gas prices were imaginary.

Those takes were so insane to me I almost thought they were paid to post here. Only people I saw with those takes were paid shills on Twitter. But I doubt they care enough about us to post here, right?

Yeah, but, you know, the reverse. Grats and good luck. Sincerely. I hope they can do something useful and good. And that we get a satisfying answer for the poll variance over the last decade.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats