FrF comments on Humans are not automatically strategic - Less Wrong

153 Post author: AnnaSalamon 08 September 2010 07:02AM

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Comment author: FrF 09 September 2010 06:25:15PM *  6 points [-]

You're right, wnoise, "village idiot" is part of an idiom but one I don't like at all and I don't think I'm particular in this regard.

I should have put my objection as "'Village idiot' is gravely anachronistic unless you want to be insensitive by subsuming a plethora of medical conditions and social determinants under a dated, derogatory term for mentally disabled people."

This may sound like nit-picking but obviously said intelligence graph is an important item in SIAI's symbolic tool kit and therefore every detail should be right. When I see the graph, I'm always thinking: Please, "for the love of cute kittens", change the "village idiot"!

Comment author: Emile 09 September 2010 06:54:34PM 5 points [-]

For what it's worth, I don't find anything wrong with the term "village idiot".

However, from previous discussions here, I think I might be on the low side of the community for my preference for "lengths to which Eliezer and the SIAI should go to accommodate the sensibilities of idiots" - there are more important things to do, and a never-ending supply of idiots.

Still, maybe it should be changed. It's not because it doesn't offend me that it won't offend anybody reasonable.