daenerys comments on Communicating rationality to the public: Julia Galef's "The Straw Vulcan" - Less Wrong

21 Post author: lukeprog 25 November 2011 10:57PM

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Comment author: KatieHartman 26 November 2011 03:37:56PM *  2 points [-]

Upvoted for the clarification. Thanks!

What about laws of physics, or evolution? While true (if technically vague) explanations for actions, they are not true cognitive reasons for actions.

"I don't want to die," for example, is obviously both an emotional preference and the result of the natural evolution of the brain. That the brain is an evolved organ isn't disputed here.

Comment author: [deleted] 26 November 2011 07:03:05PM *  2 points [-]

Upvoting everyone. This was a really useful conversation, and I'm pretty sure I was wrong, so I definitely learned something. The evolutionary drives example was much more useful to me than the AI example. Thanks!

(Though I am still of the opinion that the speech itself was still great without the info; Due to being an introduction to the topic, I still don't expect it to be able to cover everything. )