4 ms·

More sad than terrifying. Yudkowski and friends have jumped the shark and now use standard-issue PR tricks to get attention and their story in Slate under cover

by dmfdmf 12y ago

More sad than terrifying. Yudkowski and friends have jumped the shark and now use standard-issue PR tricks to get attention and their story in Slate under cover of a fake article. What's the over-under on lesswrong and MIRI folding in the next 5 years? I'm taking the under. At the very least I predict that Yudkowski will abandon his "autodidactic" pedigree and finally get his PhD. He's learning that BS is one thing but institutionalized BS is where the action is.

eruditely 12y ago
I am confused at what people think is going on at MIRI. Who thinks they're scheming and doing this? Just read some of their recent posts/twitter feeds. No one is "scheming away" like this. Ah yes, people who are in favor of effective charities, bayesian statistics, discrete mathematics, and maintain that scholarship is undervalued. Let's wish LW all the misery in the world over some utterly minor infraction.
- dmfdmf 12y ago
  Your point is not clear to me and I want to comment but cannot. Can you clarify your point? Thanks.
  - eruditely 12y ago
    I cannot tell why people speak with such vehemence and dislike of LW. You do not even have to agree that AI risk is the biggest threat to mankind. I'm sure many don't. You don't really have to agree about much. Still you can go there to talk about textbook advice, get some real advice, and actually generate fairly good discussion. The sheer seething hate points to me of a fairly malformed opinion about the community and culture. tl;dr some guy gets banned due to some careless mistake, a few people blow it way out of proportion over and over and now apparently you can get published on slate over b& drama.
    - eli_gottlieb 12y ago
      The LessWrongosphere is more cultish and wacky the further out from the center you go, while being more and more like CS/math academia the further in you go. It doesn't help that they got their start on Overcoming Bias, which already attempts to write off everything in human life that doesn't optimize for economic productivity as "irrational", and then added the participants of the HPMoR fandom who understand just enough to stand in awe of EY but not enough to participate usefully in real discussions about math, logic, and statistics.
      - eruditely 12y ago
        Mere slander. What evidence is there that this happens? Overcoming bias is a blog dedicated to overcoming biases that many humans have, economic productivity abstracts away too much from what it means. Economic productivity translates into higher living standards, far superior healthcare, and income per person. Most on LW are fiercely individualistic. I do not share most of my views with the LW end, but it is still a noticeable improvement over the ghetto that is thinking everywhere else. Also I hate fanfiction and think most is generally lame, but let people have it I guess. I was introduced to LW over two anti-LW articles and failed to see what any one was talking about.
        eli_gottlieb 12y ago
        Saying that it's more like math academia when you go further in (ie: actually make an account and post on LW itself) is a compliment.

by dmfdmf 12y ago

eruditely 12y ago

I am confused at what people think is going on at MIRI. Who thinks they're scheming and doing this? Just read some of their recent posts/twitter feeds. No one is "scheming away" like this. Ah yes, people who are in favor of effective charities, bayesian statistics, discrete mathematics, and maintain that scholarship is undervalued. Let's wish LW all the misery in the world over some utterly minor infraction.

dmfdmf 12y ago
Your point is not clear to me and I want to comment but cannot. Can you clarify your point? Thanks.
- eruditely 12y ago
  I cannot tell why people speak with such vehemence and dislike of LW. You do not even have to agree that AI risk is the biggest threat to mankind. I'm sure many don't. You don't really have to agree about much. Still you can go there to talk about textbook advice, get some real advice, and actually generate fairly good discussion. The sheer seething hate points to me of a fairly malformed opinion about the community and culture. tl;dr some guy gets banned due to some careless mistake, a few people blow it way out of proportion over and over and now apparently you can get published on slate over b& drama.
  - eli_gottlieb 12y ago
    The LessWrongosphere is more cultish and wacky the further out from the center you go, while being more and more like CS/math academia the further in you go. It doesn't help that they got their start on Overcoming Bias, which already attempts to write off everything in human life that doesn't optimize for economic productivity as "irrational", and then added the participants of the HPMoR fandom who understand just enough to stand in awe of EY but not enough to participate usefully in real discussions about math, logic, and statistics.
    - eruditely 12y ago
      Mere slander. What evidence is there that this happens? Overcoming bias is a blog dedicated to overcoming biases that many humans have, economic productivity abstracts away too much from what it means. Economic productivity translates into higher living standards, far superior healthcare, and income per person. Most on LW are fiercely individualistic. I do not share most of my views with the LW end, but it is still a noticeable improvement over the ghetto that is thinking everywhere else. Also I hate fanfiction and think most is generally lame, but let people have it I guess. I was introduced to LW over two anti-LW articles and failed to see what any one was talking about.
      - eli_gottlieb 12y ago
        Saying that it's more like math academia when you go further in (ie: actually make an account and post on LW itself) is a compliment.