wedrifid comments on Don't Revere The Bearer Of Good Info - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (64)
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.
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.)
Other questions that are implicitly asked: