The wonderful world of online universities
Yoshixi
Metauni
A few months ago, I stumbled upon some video lectures about a aussie dude detailing some topics in AI Alignment. I found that the software he was using to write with to be very peculair, and somewhat distracting. I didnt learn much from his lecture since I was so distracted by this weird software he was using. Then I realized, that he was using Roblox! I found this dichotomy of the hyper academic content and the silly limited nature of roblox to be so funny. Some of the lines were wonky due to the weird drawing system lol.
I lost the video unfortunately, though it all ties back to this channel metauni, which is a online university where graduate students from the university of melbourne give talks about a array of subjects.
I watched a few video lectures on the channel, and in the archives of the discord server. unfortunately, I live in toronto and the australian timezone is 14 hours ahead, preventing me from watching any virtual seminars. Though, I have visited their roblox game and was freaked out by the AI assistants.
I took a few notes on some videos I had playing in the background. Ive left them as outlinks to pages in my knowledgebase.
Zero Knowledge Proofs
This is a system used in modern systems to authenticate users without requiring the user to send any information that can be traced back to them like PII.
Universal Composability
This is a model of cryptography that involves creating algorithms that are composable infinitely, meaning that the security of running the same algorithm multiple times will remain the same.
Singular Learning Theory
This is a theory that seeks to find similar learning models between different ai systems. The actual talks have been relocated to this site: https://zachfurman.com/singular-learning-theory-seminar/
AI Safety
This category details the practical steps we can take to limit AI, and the philosophical branch that deals with hypothetical issues with powerful AI systems.
Note that many lectures are taught by grad students, with an audience of graduate students. I am not a gradaute student, so my notes may misinterpret lectures horribly. Though, these communities often have discussions and project showcases that seem to be less academic in content.
Degen Tech
I came upon a blog post, on lesswrong in the metauni discord server. its not published yet, I just have a read-only link for collaborators, so I cant share it, but to sum it up, essentially it is a writeup, similar to this blogpost about open science communities.
Of them, was a mention of some furry science community called Degen Tech. They operate on VRChat, and publish their lectures on youtube.
Heres a link: https://invidious.yoshixi.net/channel/UCu_Xc8XsefvGvfL8074OMiA (or youtube : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu_Xc8XsefvGvfL8074OMiA)
I dont mind furries, but there are some weird videos like experimenting with weed on cats, a tour of chernobyl, and a whole lot of very niche stuff. To be honest, I dont work in the sciences so I cant understand any of the content in these videos. I think its pretty cool that this exists though.
Also, is Lesswrong still a cult? I go on the site sometimes and theres just blog posts from academics discussing theory about a niche topic only 12 people in their field know about. Maybe its cult-like in that sense? Its a gated community.
