The Nonlinear Library: LessWrong LW - A civilization ran by amateurs by Olli Järviniemi
May 31, 2024
11:06
Link to original article
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: A civilization ran by amateurs, published by Olli Järviniemi on May 31, 2024 on LessWrong.
I
When I was a child, I remember thinking: Where do houses come from? They are huge! Building one would take forever! Yet there are so many of them!
Having become a boring adult, I no longer have the same blue-eyed wonder about houses, but humanity does have an accomplishment or two I'm still impressed by.
When going to the airport, the metal boulders really stay up in the air without crashing. Usually they leave at the time they told me two weeks earlier, taking me to the right destination at close to the speed of sound.
There are these boxes with buttons that you can press to send information near-instantly anywhere. They are able to perform billions of operations a second. And you can just buy them at a store!
And okay, I admit that big houses - skyscrapers - still light up some of that child-like marvel in me.
II
Some time ago I watched the Eurovision song contest. For those who haven't seen it, it looks something like this:
It's a big contest, and the whole physical infrastructure - huge hall, the stage, stage effects, massive led walls, camera work - is quite impressive. But there's an objectively less impressive thing I want to focus on here: the hosts.
I basically couldn't notice the hosts making any errors. They articulate themselves clearly, they don't stutter or stumble on their words, their gestures and facial expressions are just what they are supposed to be, they pause their speech at the right moments for the right lengths, they could fluently speak some non-English languages as well, ...
And, sure, this is not one-in-a-billion talent - there are plenty of competent hosts in all kinds of shows - but they clearly are professionals and much more competent than your average folk.
(I don't know about you, but when I've given talks to small groups of people, I've started my sentences without knowing how they'll end, talked too fast, stumbled in my speech, and my facial expressions probably haven't been ideal. If the Eurovision hosts get nervous when talking to a hundred million people, it doesn't show up.)
III
I think many modern big-budget movies are pretty darn good.
I'm particularly thinking of Oppenheimer and the Dune series here (don't judge my movie taste), but the point is more general. The production quality of big movies is extremely high. Like, you really see that these are not amateur projects filmed in someone's backyard, but there's an actual effort to make a good movie.
There's, of course, a written script that the actors follow. This script has been produced by one or multiple people who have previously demonstrated their competence. The actors are professionals who, too, have been selected for competence. If they screw up, someone tells them. A scene is shot again until they get it right. The actors practice so that they can get it right. The movie is, obviously, filmed scene-by-scene. There are the cuts and sounds and lighting.
Editing is used to fix some errors - or maybe even to basically create the whole scene. Movie-making technology improves and the new technology is used in practice, and the whole process builds on several decades of experience.
Imagine an alternative universe where this is not how movies were made. There is no script, but rather the actors improvise from a rough sketch - and by "actors" I don't mean competent Eurovision-grade hosts, I mean average folk paid to be filmed. No one really gives them feedback on how they are doing, nor do they really "practice" acting on top of simply doing their job. The whole movie is shot in one big session with no cuts or editing.
People don't really use new technology for movies, but instead stick to mid-to-late-1900s era cameras and techniques. Overall movies look largely the same as they have...
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: A civilization ran by amateurs, published by Olli Järviniemi on May 31, 2024 on LessWrong.
I
When I was a child, I remember thinking: Where do houses come from? They are huge! Building one would take forever! Yet there are so many of them!
Having become a boring adult, I no longer have the same blue-eyed wonder about houses, but humanity does have an accomplishment or two I'm still impressed by.
When going to the airport, the metal boulders really stay up in the air without crashing. Usually they leave at the time they told me two weeks earlier, taking me to the right destination at close to the speed of sound.
There are these boxes with buttons that you can press to send information near-instantly anywhere. They are able to perform billions of operations a second. And you can just buy them at a store!
And okay, I admit that big houses - skyscrapers - still light up some of that child-like marvel in me.
II
Some time ago I watched the Eurovision song contest. For those who haven't seen it, it looks something like this:
It's a big contest, and the whole physical infrastructure - huge hall, the stage, stage effects, massive led walls, camera work - is quite impressive. But there's an objectively less impressive thing I want to focus on here: the hosts.
I basically couldn't notice the hosts making any errors. They articulate themselves clearly, they don't stutter or stumble on their words, their gestures and facial expressions are just what they are supposed to be, they pause their speech at the right moments for the right lengths, they could fluently speak some non-English languages as well, ...
And, sure, this is not one-in-a-billion talent - there are plenty of competent hosts in all kinds of shows - but they clearly are professionals and much more competent than your average folk.
(I don't know about you, but when I've given talks to small groups of people, I've started my sentences without knowing how they'll end, talked too fast, stumbled in my speech, and my facial expressions probably haven't been ideal. If the Eurovision hosts get nervous when talking to a hundred million people, it doesn't show up.)
III
I think many modern big-budget movies are pretty darn good.
I'm particularly thinking of Oppenheimer and the Dune series here (don't judge my movie taste), but the point is more general. The production quality of big movies is extremely high. Like, you really see that these are not amateur projects filmed in someone's backyard, but there's an actual effort to make a good movie.
There's, of course, a written script that the actors follow. This script has been produced by one or multiple people who have previously demonstrated their competence. The actors are professionals who, too, have been selected for competence. If they screw up, someone tells them. A scene is shot again until they get it right. The actors practice so that they can get it right. The movie is, obviously, filmed scene-by-scene. There are the cuts and sounds and lighting.
Editing is used to fix some errors - or maybe even to basically create the whole scene. Movie-making technology improves and the new technology is used in practice, and the whole process builds on several decades of experience.
Imagine an alternative universe where this is not how movies were made. There is no script, but rather the actors improvise from a rough sketch - and by "actors" I don't mean competent Eurovision-grade hosts, I mean average folk paid to be filmed. No one really gives them feedback on how they are doing, nor do they really "practice" acting on top of simply doing their job. The whole movie is shot in one big session with no cuts or editing.
People don't really use new technology for movies, but instead stick to mid-to-late-1900s era cameras and techniques. Overall movies look largely the same as they have...