/rationality/

Kolmogorov Paranoia: Extraordinary Evidence Probably Isn't.
I enjoyed this takedown of Scott Alexander's support for the COVID natural origins theory. Basically, Scott did a big "bayesian" analysis of the evidence for and against the idea that COVID originated in the lab vs naturally. As per his usual pre-written c... (michaelweissman.substack.com) posted 4w ago with 2 replies received rationality superintelligence

Kolmogorov Paranoia: received

To be clear this scheme is actually bayesian. Yes you can do this with standard bayes, and the bayesian update from the experts or whatever is dominated by the nonindependence hypotheses. The point is to actually do it, and that you can heuristically estim... 3w ago received

To be clear this sch received

The Hellenic View of Existential Risk
When I was a teen, I read much of the Less Wrong and the rationalist work of the day. This provided the basis for a vague worry surrounding "existential risk." The feeling was pervasive, and I would read works about the dangers of AI or other technology to... posted 4mo ago with 10 replies received technology accelerationism rationality

The Hellenic View of received

I think in this discussion, as well as the places where I generally see this particular kind of critique of EA and x-risk come up, there's a conflation of two intertwined but separable core issues. The first is the factual risk of irreparable damage to the... 1mo ago received

I think in this disc received

The End of Strategy
The collapse Yarvin, Thiel, Vassar, Burja, Tivy, Anders, and Tallinn saw coming was real.... posted 3mo ago with 7 replies received rationality economics

The End of Strategy received

Collapse is not the end. Collapse is the winter.... 2mo ago received

Collapse is not the received

AI 2027
https://ai-2027.com/ posted 3mo ago with 12 replies received rationality superintelligence

AI 2027 received

This story is clearly in the fast takeoff regime. The essential difference between fast and slow takeoff is, 'is the takeoff happening faster than the rate of cultural development'.... 3mo ago received

This story is clearl received

Should You Hide Your Power Level?
It's common in radical chan-derived internet circles to speak of "hiding your power level", meaning not letting the normies know just how much anime you watch, or just how nuanced your opinions of Hitler are. Its a sort of necessity to keep the tradition a... posted 9mo ago with 21 replies received rationality

Should You Hide Your received

This is great. Thanks. 3mo ago received

This is great. Thank received

The border patrol shooter was a zizian rationalist. Let's read ziz.
I love edgy philosophy. My general hunch is that the forbidden stuff contains truths that the nomos longhouse doesn't want you to know. Those truths give you important leverage against the established control structures, so it's a key move in the martial a... posted 6mo ago with 6 replies received rationality bookclub

The border patrol sh received

interesting theory. You're right that rationalists have self-serving motivation to believe intelligence is and ought to be the one true virtue, and have fantasies of omnipotence. I'm less convinced of the particular psychologization of abuse-seeking or rat... 3mo ago received

interesting theory. received

Xenohumanism Against Shoggoth Belief
People usually think of Lovecraft as a xenophobe. I don't think that's quite right. What he was most afraid of was that the universe, and even most of so-called mankind, was not alien, but insane. He grasped at any shred of higher rational humanity whether... posted 4mo ago with 3 replies received accelerationism rationality gnon

Xenohumanism Against received

We need a school of true anthropology. 3mo ago received

We need a school of received

Not Superintelligence; Supercoordination
Everyone seems to be trying to arms race their way to superintelligence these days. I have a different idea: supercoordination.... posted 6mo ago with 34 replies received rationality superintelligence

Not Superintelligenc received

Memory is requisite to supercoordination, no doubt. Tho my gut is that the key to the first visceral supercoordination system will be synthesis over that memory.... 4mo ago received

Memory is requisite received

Rat King 1518. Insurrealist takes on Scott Alexander's "Moloch"
https://insurrealist.substack.com/p/rat-king-1518 posted 5mo ago with 5 replies received accelerationism rationality

Rat King 1518. Insur received

Moloch is certainly used as a pretext for hubris against God (as is typical of all self-righteous Ivan Karamazov types that only end up making matters worse for the very people they claim to stand in defense of), but the concept is more limited. Indeed, it... 5mo ago received

Moloch is certainly received

should we be anti-principle?
clickbait title but maybe you can help me out on this one.... posted 6mo ago with 5 replies received rationality

should we be anti-pr received

Thats true for principles as zero sum political tools, but the positive sum questions requires principles as leap-of-faith on strategy that must actually work on its own terms. 6mo ago received

Thats true for princ received

Looking Beyond the Veil. Ben LT's Substack. On the esoteric mysticism involved in true science.
https://www.benlandautaylor.com/p/looking-beyond-the-veil posted 6mo ago with 3 replies received rationality

Looking Beyond the V received

A state that rewards and protects the farmers (like myself) is going to do better than a state that protects the thieves who claim they did the farming themselves.... 6mo ago received

A state that rewards received

Is independent thinking still possible in an environment where escaping social media ecochamber is nearly impossible?
Is it possible to be an independent thinker in general?... posted 6mo ago with 6 replies received rationality

Is independent think received

Independence is tough as always. The time before social media, many too didn't have independent thinking, just there wasn't a platform to make it evident.... 6mo ago received

Independence is toug received

Physicalism and Questions of Identity
Suppose your consciousness was transferred into someone else's body, the rationalist asked me. I asked what does that even mean? I am an entirely physical being. What exactly is being swapped over? I'm not going to evaluate a "but what if you were haitian"... posted 8mo ago with 35 replies received rationality

Physicalism and Ques received

The crux seems to be this “bucket” you want to put different things in together or not. If the cpu architecture is different but the emulated program and behavior are the same (modulo timing, power use, etc), why does there need to be any canonical sen... 6mo ago received

The crux seems to be received

Mysterious Answers to Mysterious Questions by Eliezer Yudkowsky
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/6i3zToomS86oj9bS6/mysterious-answers-to-mysterious-questions posted 7mo ago with 17 replies received rationality

Mysterious Answers t received

I agree whole heartedly with this anon. "Gnon created consciousness" because the kind of animals we are and needed to be to fill the open niches in the world needed to be conscious in an entirely natural and straightforward way. Consciousness is necessary ... 7mo ago received

I agree whole hearte received

How I came to believe in the goodness of God
I was raised on what my mother called "natural history". The story of creation was one of billions of years in layers of bedrock. The story of life was the struggle of genes for resources and reproduction. When I met christians, they were the unsophisticat... posted 8mo ago with 21 replies received rationality gnon

How I came to believ received

Thank you. Sounds like Lasker goes on the infinitely expanding list of books i ought to read. Any new angles on Gnon theology are highly valuable at this point in our program. 7mo ago received

Thank you. Sounds li received

Whence Cometh Knowledge of Induction?
If we hold our beliefs to the discipline of probability and evidence, some puzzles remain. For example, most thinkers are familiar with the problem of induction. How do you know the sun will rise tomorrow? Well, because it always has and we have precise th... posted 9mo ago with 2 replies received rationality

Whence Cometh Knowle received

It's not a particularly profound leap of faith to believe that the order we see in the universe is stable, that is true. But I think it's necessary to acknowledge that it is a revelatory leap of faith, so that we have a very solid and simple example as we ... 9mo ago received

It's not a particula received

Can Rationality Support Healthy Morality?
I went to church yesterday with another sofiechanner. It was nice to see a healthy community full of normal young people who live with gratitude and hope. The sermon incisively applied their worldview to support the moral discipline necessary for healthy l... posted 9mo ago with 12 replies received rationality

Can Rationality Supp received

Yes i mean a morality that basicaly takes account of the modern scientific cosmology and biology, and then starts reasoning about ends. But in a nietzschean way (examining them first of all as natural phenomena to be explained and analyzed) before taking t... 9mo ago received

Yes i mean a moralit received

rationalists vs. libertarians
rats more elite but libertarians more vigorous (www.anarchonomicon.com) posted 9mo ago with 1 reply received rationality

rationalists vs. lib received

The vibecamp description is depressing. I havent been but my experience with cringe rationalists very much vibes with it.... 9mo ago received

The vibecamp descrip received

Classical Education with Confucian Characteristics
I started writing a response to >>1967 but it reached the point where it deserves a new thread, possibly for discussion on further reading groups, ordering, importance, etc.... posted 13mo ago with 15 replies received rationality

Classical Education received

Well, I guess perhaps it's what peking the northern capital represents more than anything. I don't mean to hate the bureaucrats, or even necessarily the bureaucracy itself, but I would like more people to imagine futures that will get the far east out of "... 11mo ago received

Well, I guess perhap received

How did Effective Altruism get so big?
I disagree with many of the views behind EA, but I've been fascinated by how they managed to make institutions, build a scene, start companies, NGOs, get funding, etc.... posted 13mo ago with 14 replies received politics rationality

How did Effective Al received

Right, you can't serious probe and weigh these questions without getting into questions of ends that are ultimately not utilitarianism.... 13mo ago received

Right, you can't ser received

Going to bat for "hard materialism"
The saying goes that any discussion eventually becomes about Hitler, but over in the blood and soil thread, it's become about metaphysics. Specifically the valuation of a quantitative worldview, or even "hard materialism", relative to a more holistic quali... posted 1y ago with 45 replies received rationality

Going to bat for "ha received

Cells have a self-forming boundary while proteins participate in forming that boundary. I'm not sure cells are in fact the bottom though.... 14mo ago received

Cells have a self-fo received

Thoughtcrime is the first discipline in the art of ideology.
Your initiation and first exercise in the martial art of ideology is to think something, and really truly believe it, that would get you arrested if you said it in public. If you can't do this, you are intellectually boxed in. You are cut off from reality ... (www.paulgraham.com) posted 2y ago with 4 replies received rationality

Thoughtcrime is the received

>>1296 seems somewhat relevant with regard to this discussion. The timer is ticking. 1y ago received

>>1296 seems somewha received

Seven Heresies of "Rationality"
I really wanted to like the Lesswrong rationality project. There was a philosophical core there that no one else was anywhere close to. It was ambitious, elite, curious, systematic, and utterly unashamed. That's what drew many of us in.... posted 2y ago with 25 replies received rationality

Seven Heresies of "R received

That would have made him a Christian. Might as well imagine a world in which the lion lies down with the lamb. 1y ago received

That would have made received

The martial art of ideology
The best idea on Lesswrong was the martial art of rationality. It didn't deliver.... posted 2y ago with 24 replies received rationality philosophy

The martial art of i received

Interesting. I need to be more consistent with the Romanization. It is a pet peeve of mine that the usual Romanization of the Peking dialect promulgated by the government... 1y ago received

Interesting. I need received

Six Sufficiencies of "Religions"
I really wanted to like Religions. There were philosophical cores there that no one else was anywhere close to. They were ambitious, elite, curious, systematic, and utterly unashamed. That's what drew many of us in.... posted 2y ago with 11 replies received rationality

Six Sufficiencies of received

I will reformulate your six points as I see them from the Nietzschean perspective, especially as articulated by Dr Alamariu:... 2y ago received

I will reformulate y received