wedrifid comments on Don't Revere The Bearer Of Good Info - Less Wrong

82 Post author: CarlShulman 21 March 2009 11:22PM

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Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 21 March 2009 11:57:30PM 7 points [-]

EDIT: I agree with your conclusion, but...

(Checks Don Loeb reference.)

While, unsurprisingly, we end up adding to the same normality, I would not say that these folks have the same metaethics I do. Certainly Greene's paper title "The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Truth About Morality" was enough to tell me that he probably didn't have exactly the same metaethics and interpretation I did. I would not feel at all comfortable describing myself as a "moral irrealist" on the basis of what I've seen so far.

Drescher one-boxes on Newcomb's Problem, but doesn't seem to have invented quite the same decision theory I have.

I don't think Nick ever claimed to have invented the Simulation Argument - he would probably be quite willing to credit Moravec.

On many other things, I have tried to use standard terminology where I actually agree with standard theories, and provide a reference or two. Where I am knowingly being just a messenger, I do usually try to convey that. But you may be reading too much into certain similarities that also have important points of difference or further development.

EDIT2: I occasionally notice the problem you point to, and write a blog post telling people to read more textbooks. Probably this is not enough. I'll try to reach a higher standard in any canonicalized versions.

Comment author: thomblake 02 April 2009 02:12:49PM 15 points [-]

I think the biggest issue here is your tendency to not cite sources other than yourself, which is an immediate turn-off to academics. To an academic, it suggests the following questions (amongst others): If your ideas are so good, why hasn't anyone else thought of them? Doesn't anyone else have an opinion on this - do you have a response to their arguments? Are you actually doing work in your field without having read enough to cite those who agree or disagree with you?

(I know this isn't a new issue, but it seems it bears repeating.)

Comment author: wedrifid 09 August 2010 02:36:39AM 5 points [-]

Other questions that are implicitly asked:

  • Why are you not signalling in group status?
  • Why are you not signalling alliance with me or my allies by inventing excuses to refer to us?
  • Are you an outsider trying to claim our territory in cognitive space?
  • Are you talking about topics that are reserved for those with higher status in our group than we assign you?