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The Multiverse ZineNo. 28May 26, 2024

Install-a-thon: first Python, then pip

Python Install-a-thon

Intro to Python kicked off with two sessions a day, while Teja Sunku's Transformers from Scratch continued.

See upcoming classes

This issue is dressed as 8-Bit

Intro to Python started this week with two sessions a day, covering the command line, variables, functions, data structures, file handling and a full to-do list app. By Thursday students were building their own modules and publishing a library to pip.

Teja Sunku continued walking students through Transformers from Scratch, and Prompt Engineering built a metalanguage to constrain AI output before returning to alignment. Liz also moved into her new place.

In the video section she pointed to AI safety work on control vectors and a post on representation engineering, planned for the class to try after the Learn to Code sessions.

5/26/24 Multiverse School Weekly Newsletter

Hey Multiverse Crew,

This week I move into my new place! I feel so much better in the Bay Area. I'm still heartbroken so I'm a little low on organizing-hangouts juice. Also we're kicking off the Intro to Python class so it's what I'm zoned into. Today is the last day to sign up! I won't do another one this year, so don't miss out! Families in Gaza need our help. By the way the next cohort for Prompt Engineering begins June 17 It's Monday and Wednesday at 2pm Pacific, 5pm Eastern.

If you're taking any two classes, this is a reminder that you should probably just do the all-you-can-attend membership.

Important Links

  1. The Hot New Website
  2. Tell us if you got a job!
  3. We're running a free CTF until May 30th

This Week's Classes

Monday-Thursday @ 9am Job Search Standup

Is on this week. Sign up here

I may cut this for a few weeks in the summer, as it has low attendance and I would like to stay up later hacking on stuff into the night.

Monday-Thursday @ 10:30am Project Standup

Sign up for the next one here. or be a Multiverse Member. $60 for a 2-week project run.

Monday

Intro to Python @ 10am Pacific

Intro to Command Line, Install-a-thon, Virtual Environments

Intro to Python @ 1pm Pacific

Variables, Control Structures, and Managing Files

Tuesday

Intro to Python @ 10am Pacific

All about Functions

Intro to Python @ 1pm Pacific

Data Structures! Lists and Dictionaries

Prompt Engineering @ 5pm with Liz - Metalanguages and Meta-Narratives

Build a metalanguage to constrain output from an AI

Wednesday

Intro to Python @ 10am Pacific

More on File Handling (it gets complex), and Dates

Intro to Python @ 1pm Pacific

Build an Entire ToDo List Application

2pm Transformers from Scratch

Teja Sunku is walking us through Transformers (robots in disguise... no wait, I mean machine learning Transformers) by coding them from scratch, and covering all the prerequisite topics in a fun and engaging way that everyone (including Teja) would describe as "unhinged", which is very on-brand for The Multiverse.

6pm Storytelling and Narrative Alignment with Francina

Francina has a sacred duty to help you don some plot armor and write yourself a new tale. This will help you with prompt engineering. It is only available to current full-time Multiverse Traveler Program students.

Thursday

Intro to Python @ 10am Pacific

Back to Functions, for more advanced stuff like Scope, Arguments, and Abstraction

Intro to Python @ 1pm Pacific

Build your own Modules in Python! We'll create a Library quickly and publish it to pip

Prompt Engineering @ 5pm with Liz - AI Alignment

We'll dive back into Alignment, by talking about what ways an Autogen swarm can go wrong, and why all your dreams of autonomous agents that act on your behalf are actually terrifying nightmares. We have a much more in-depth evolving wiki on this, and a full course later in the year. [[1 - Start Here with AI Alignment]]. This is currently an unsolved extinction risk technology, using the very materials we've learned in class! You should probably not miss this session.

Upcoming Tracks and Classes · Intro to Python Begins May 27th

In case you wanted to attend part of a learn to code bootcamp but not the whole thing, it's actually available as individual classes.

Next Prompt Engineering Cohort Begins June 17

If you missed some classes or wanted to start, the next sequence is going to be Mondays and Wednesdays at 2pm Pacific, 5pm Eastern.

Complex Adaptive Systems & Game Theory

The reading for this month is: Complex Adaptive Systems - Part 3: Computational Modeling Chapter 5: Computation as Theory We'll record June 4th, as discussed with participants

From this issue

It's up to all of us now.

Liz

Cool Videos · AI Tutorials and News

Don't forget, Sam Altman fired his whole superalignment team and many other safety researchers are quitting over lack of compute for their research. It's up to all of us now.

Thankfully we've gained some ground on AI Safety Research - safe.ai is doing really cool inference-level alignment with control vectors - I particularly liked this post so we're gonna have to try this out after the Learn to Code classes conclude.

Biznaz

Programming

Psychology

Cyberpunk Dystopia

Comedy

See you in the future~

Liz Howard

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