Maybe it's because his brain is so large that my mirror neurons have to fire three times faster to compensate, but I always get so frustrated when watching Eliezer discussing things with non-SIAI people. It's almost kinda painful to watch, because even though I wish someone would come along and pwn Eliezer in an argument, it never ever happens because everyone is more wrong than him, and I have to sit there and listen to them fail in such predictably irrational ways. Seriously, Eliezer is smart, but there have to be some academics out there that can point to at least one piece of Eliezer's fortress of beliefs and find a potentially weak spot. Right? Do you know how epistemically distressing it is to have learned half the things you know from one person who keeps on getting proven right? That's not supposed to happen! Grarghhhhhh. (Runs off to read the Two Cult Koans.) (Remembers Eliezer wrote those, too.) (God dammit.)
(And as long as I'm being cultish, HOW DEAR PEOPLE CALL OUR FEARLESS LEADER 'YUDKOWSKI'?!?!??!? IT COMPLETELY RUINS THE SYMMETRY OF THE ETERNAL DOUBLE 'Y'S! AHHH! But seriously, it kinda annoys me in a way that most trolling doesn't.)
Maybe it's because his brain is so large that my mirror neurons have to fire three times faster to compensate, but I always get so frustrated when watching Eliezer discussing things with non-SIAI people.
Start with a bit of LW's own "specialized cult jargon" (I kid, really!)... specifically the idea of inferential distance.
Now imagine formalizing this concept more concretely than you get with story-based hand waving, so that it was more quantitative -- with parametrized shades of grey instead of simply being "relevant" or "not re...
Sweet, there's another Bloggingheads episode with Eliezer.
Bloggingheads: Robert Wright and Eliezer Yudkowsky: Science Saturday: Purposes and Futures