Edits to the Hume's Guillotine repo: The HumesGuillotine README <https://github.com/jabowery/HumesGuillotine/tree/master> now has this passage: This repository contains a toy dataset LaboratoryOfTheCounties). If you want to play around with macrosocial modeling, you might start with it, as its size is small enough for most personal computers to handle. It should not be taken as an example of the result of the above-described adversarial curation of macrosocial data. However, it does exemplify one desirable feature of such a curated dataset, in that it was compiled by the US Census, which most would agree is less biased in its data selection than would be many of the adversaries promoting their pet social theories.
The Laboratory of the Counties README <https://github.com/jabowery/HumesGuillotine/tree/master/LaboratoryOfTheCounties> now starts with this passage: The Laboratory of the Counties Social Causality Contest Although this is merely a toy dataset, it may serve to illustrate some of the features of the proposed reform of the social pseudosciences. The following description of contest rules are therefore best thought of as a way to conceptualize what would ensue once a much larger dataset had been curated from the adversarial negotiation of what data to include in the contest. It may even serve as the basis for an initial contest for students who are interested in getting a hands-on intuition for why this approach to reforming the social pseudosciences would be practical at scale. On Sat, Aug 1, 2026 at 8:34 PM James Bowery <[email protected]> wrote: > > > On Sat, Aug 1, 2026 at 12:06 PM Matt Mahoney <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> So to answer my earlier questions, the data you would compress to settle >> questions about macro social theories would be Hume's guillotine >> > > No. Perhaps I should delete the dataset there since it was merely a "toy" > example of macrosocial data to illustrate the general idea. This should be > obvious from the README where I discuss data selection as involving > conflicting interests. > > A realistic contest to bring conflicting interests to the table with an > objective criterion would involve a lot of negotiation about what data to > include -- just as I described in the README. > > The LLMs also get confused by this since they, too, can't seem to think at > the level of game theoretic incentives to resolve conflicts that could end > up killing like 20% of the population over who gets control of the central > levers of an out of control central government. > ------------------------------------------ Artificial General Intelligence List: AGI Permalink: https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/T5b58bcc51c493d41-M714ced6d6f85f20cf4450d33 Delivery options: https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/subscription
