Some research says that lurkers make up over 90% of online groups. I suspect that Less Wrong has an even higher percentage of lurkers than other online communities.
Please post a comment in this thread saying "Hi." You can say more if you want, but just posting "Hi" is good for a guaranteed free point of karma.
Also see the introduction thread.
It certainly seems to. Somewhere on my list of "ways to stop an AI from torturing me for 10 million years" is "find anyone who is in the process of creating an AI that will torture me and kill them". I'm not overly concerned what name they give it.
Since Eliezer considers it rational to prefer TORTURE to SPECKS, an FAI to his specification would presumably do the same. In either case, too bad if you're the one who gets TORTUREd. Maybe 3^^^3 people to SPECK will never be created, but what is one person compared with even the mere bazillions that FAI-assisted humanity might produce in mere billions of years? You need to make very sure you're one of the elect before creating God.
The parallels with Christian theology just keep coming. Thanks to Timeless Decision Theory, you were either saved or damned fr... (read more)