Kenneth Stanley created a new social network based on serendipity and divergence
Feb 28, 2024
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Kenneth Stanley, a Professor renowned for his work in neuroevolution and author of "Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned," discusses his innovative serendipity network, Maven. He explains how this platform allows users to follow interests rather than people, moving away from popularity contests. The conversation explores the philosophical implications of creativity, the significance of serendipitous encounters, and the balance between exploration and quality in knowledge-sharing. Stanley champions a fresh approach to social media that fosters genuine connections and nurtures creativity.
Kenneth Stanley's Maven is a serendipity network focusing on interests, not people, to avoid popularity contests.
The book 'Why greatness cannot be planned' advocates for open-ended, serendipitous creativity over objective optimization systems.
AI systems lack true autonomy and creativity; true innovation requires more than combinatorial creativity.
Innovation thrives on diverse viewpoints and interestingness detectors, challenging the consensus for breakthroughs.
Rigid objectives hinder creativity; promoting interestingness over objectives can lead to more innovative outcomes.
Agency and serendipity are crucial for fostering creativity and innovation, challenging objective-driven systems for dynamic environments.
Deep dives
Kent Stanley's Journey: From AI Research to Creating Maven Social Network
Kent Stanley shares his transition from AI research to establishing Maven, a serendipity network that diverges from traditional social media platforms. Maven eliminates popularity contests and likes, focusing on accumulating diverse interests to foster creativity. By following interests instead of influencers, Maven aims to create a platform where users explore and discover new interests organically.
Objectives vs. Open-endedness: The Key Insights from Kenneth and Joel's Book
Kenneth Stanley and Joel's book delves into the paradox of objectives hindering the achievement of goals and stifling creativity. The book emphasizes how traditional objective optimization systems suffer from the 'shortcut rule' and Goodhart's law, limiting innovation and creativity. It advocates for embracing open-ended processes that allow for serendipitous discoveries and divergent thinking.
Exploration, Autonomy, and Creativity in AI Systems
The podcast discusses the autonomy and creativity gap in AI systems compared to human creativity. It explores the challenges of imbuing AI with true creativity and autonomy, highlighting the need for more than combinatorial creativity. The conversation touches on the importance of interactions, creativity, and autonomy in fostering truly innovative and transformative AI systems.
Creativity and Diversity in Innovation
Innovation often arises from ideas that challenge the status quo and are not universally agreed upon. The process of creativity and innovation thrives on diversity of viewpoints and interestingness detectors. Room for disagreement is crucial as major breakthroughs come from exploring ideas that deviate from consensus.
Challenges of Objectives and Interestingness
Setting rigid objectives can hinder creative achievement and innovation. The podcast delves into the detrimental effects of being focused solely on objectives within various systems, from AI algorithms to social networks. It argues for a shift towards promoting interestingness over strict adherence to predefined objectives.
Serendipity Network and Agency Amplification
The discussion highlights the importance of agency in fostering creativity and serendipity in societal and corporate contexts. It underscores the need for systems that prioritize agency amplification to allow for exploration and divergent thinking. By challenging objective-driven approaches and promoting serendipitous discovery, a more dynamic and innovative environment can be cultivated.
Need for Paradigm Shifts Threaten Status Quo
Introducing a new paradigm poses a threat to established careers, challenging the status quo. Heretical or radical ideas face resistance and immunity from conventional systems like grant committees. The current objective-based working model struggles to accommodate truly creative or radical concepts, hindering progress.
Discovering Power through Serendipity and Autonomy
Exploring curiosity and serendipity can lead to empowerment through autonomous pursuits. Agency allows individuals to navigate various degrees of freedom and seek power, influencing their intellectual and experiential domains. Serendipity generates power implicitly through genuine curiosity-driven actions, expanding personal influence and self-expression.
Social Networks, Serendipity, and Reimagining Exposure
Current social media platforms focus on consensus-driven virality, limiting exposure to diverse and idiosyncratic content. Proposed systems prioritize serendipitous exposure, facilitating individual transformation and diversifying experiences. Detoxing from popularity-driven mechanisms can reshape human behavior and incentivize meaningful and non-viral interactions in online communities.
Exploring Quality Mechanisms in Social Media Platforms
The discussion delves into the concept of quality mechanisms in social media platforms, contrasting the need for individual autonomy with the expression of quality. The podcast explores the idea of 'minimal criterion' as a standard for content, allowing for total divergence while maintaining a minimal quality threshold. This view emphasizes interpretation over ranking, aiming to encourage divergence in subjective domains.
Addressing Cold Start Problem and Future Scaling Issues
The conversation touches upon the challenge of the cold start problem in launching a social media platform and the potential impact of scaling. It examines the unique approach of the platform in promoting divergence over homogenization, emphasizing the need for features to support user engagement and exploration. The discussion also highlights the risk of objective measures affecting diversity and the importance of maintaining differentiation in the social media landscape.
See what Sam Altman advised Kenneth when he left OpenAI! Professor Kenneth Stanley has just launched a brand new type of social network, which he calls a "Serendipity network". The idea is that you follow interests, NOT people. It's a social network without the popularity contest. We discuss the phgilosophy and technology behind the venture in great detail. The main ideas of which came from Kenneth's famous book "Why greatness cannot be planned".
See what Sam Altman advised Kenneth when he left OpenAI! Professor Kenneth Stanley has just launched a brand new type of social network, which he calls a "Serendipity network".The idea is that you follow interests, NOT people. It's a social network without the popularity contest.
MLST public Discord: https://discord.gg/machine-learning-street-talk-mlst-937356144060530778
Please support our work on Patreon - get access to interviews months early, private Patreon, networking, exclusive content and regular calls with Tim and Keith.
https://patreon.com/mlst
Get Maven here:
https://www.heymaven.com/
Kenneth:
https://twitter.com/kenneth0stanley
https://www.kenstanley.net/home
Host - Tim Scarfe:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ecsquizor/
https://www.mlst.ai/
Original MLST show with Kenneth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhYGXYeMq_E
Tim explains the book more here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNhaz81OOqw
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