Eliezer_Yudkowsky comments on Rationality Quotes December 2011 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: Jayson_Virissimo 02 December 2011 06:01AM

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Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 28 December 2011 06:22:33AM 9 points [-]

How strange; I live in an Enlightened civilization and I haven't chopped wood or carried water in a good long while. It would seem that someone has, once again, underestimated the potential of the mind because their own method did not suffice to achieve it.

Comment author: Nick_Tarleton 28 December 2011 07:02:58AM *  5 points [-]

This is obviously a different sense of the word "enlightenment", and a different intended connotation of "chop wood, carry water". Downvoted.

(I always thought that, like TheOtherDave said below, this quote means "it all adds up to normality".)

Comment author: ciphergoth 30 December 2011 02:15:39PM 3 points [-]

I disagree; I think that the saying is straightforwardly mistaken in exactly the way Eliezer states.

Comment author: Risto_Saarelma 30 December 2011 05:40:56PM *  4 points [-]

I read it as something like "enlightened or not, you're still made of atoms".

Comment author: marchdown 04 January 2012 09:26:03AM 0 points [-]

... and you still have the same evolutionary history and basic urges, all of which significantly constrain your preferences and capabilities.