nazgulnarsil comments on Link: Facing the Mind-Killer - Less Wrong

8 Post author: Larks 18 December 2010 12:57AM

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Comment author: nazgulnarsil 20 December 2010 05:42:54AM *  0 points [-]

I disagree.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 20 December 2010 07:54:24PM 2 points [-]

You don't believe that getting angry at someone affects how they will behave towards you in the future?

Comment author: nazgulnarsil 21 December 2010 02:03:27AM 0 points [-]

who should I get angry at in order to affect policy?

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 21 December 2010 05:14:44AM 1 point [-]

By itself, you getting angry will not affect politics much, although on a small scale it will affect how people treat you.

However, a group of like minded angry (and ideally at least minimally coordinated) people will have an affect on policy.

Comment author: nazgulnarsil 21 December 2010 09:42:10AM *  0 points [-]

What actions can a group take to affect policy that is better than pursuing wealth generation for each individual member?

so this conversation doesn't continue indefinitely I'll jump to the end. If you aren't directly contributing to SENS, SIAI, etc you should probably be getting rich so you can throw money at them. I have a limited amount of time and resources, I'm devoting them to increasing my own wealth generation rather than political conflict. If there is a policy that will have a direct effect on this avenue (such as say stem cell legislation) that is something I will be interested in. You have to pick your battles.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 21 December 2010 05:54:45PM 2 points [-]

What actions can a group take to affect policy that is better than pursuing wealth generation for each individual member?

Making sure the government doesn't pursue economic policies that make this all but impossible for starters.

Comment author: nazgulnarsil 21 December 2010 11:56:31PM *  0 points [-]

sure, and that is one of the points of agreement between all economists. but economic policy is affected by nobel prize winners and billions upon billions of dollars. in contrast existential risk management is a multimillion (and in the low millions) dollar project all told. I'm picking my battles. tech, especially transhumanist tech, helps move the goalposts.

see: http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/05/policy_tugowar.html