Health
🤔
I caught a (so far) mild case of COVID. My symptoms started Monday, and I tested positive on Tuesday. But I’ve been able to smell, taste, and breathe the whole time. My worst symptom was an intermittent 102 fever with some pretty heavy fatigue. My doctor recommended monoclonal antibodies because of my immunosuppressing medicine, so I did that on Thursday, but by then I was already feeling better. By Friday night I was feeling practically normal, except for an occasional congested cough that I’m still waiting to clear.
This week I’m watching to see if things stay good or get worse again, which would send me back to the doctor so they can check for pneumonia. I’m planning to stay isolated until Saturday, though now that I’m feeling more normal, I’ve been taking walks outside, away from crowds and with my mask on.
Productivity
🙂
My project time took a dip with my extra napping, but I kept up with my daily routines. I took it as a good sign for my system that it could keep my life together even with that level of fatigue, at least over that short time frame.
I explored the current state of my system a little more. I’ve had a lot to say about my rather annoying Admin procedure where I try to manage my tasks. But I’ve temporarily moved on to pondering fatigue, since that’s become relevant. And I started grappling with certain void-like periods that lead to time wasting.
TV
😎
I enjoyed the start of the new Star Trek series, Strange New Worlds. It normally takes me a while to get used to a new cast, but the first episode did a good job of introducing the characters and making them likable. And even though I live for long story arcs, I’m interested to see what they do with an episodic approach to modern Trek.
I finished Person of Interest, and it gets a 5/5. It’s a gripping action-adventure story, a smart AI story, and an engaging human story. The writers were clearly in touch with some key conversations on AI alignment. The show reinforced my sense that the way an AI turns out will depend on the details—the purposes and capabilities you give it and the circumstances you place it in, all of which depend on the reasons you build it. Of course, we don’t have any real superintelligent AIs to test this on, so all we can do is speculate and plan carefully.
