Emile comments on Welcome to Less Wrong! (2012) - Less Wrong

25 Post author: orthonormal 26 December 2011 10:57PM

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Comment author: Emile 02 January 2012 12:54:32AM *  3 points [-]

I'd hope that LessWrong is a community in which having in the past been willing to support controversial opinions would increase your repute, not decrease it.

Giving respect to controversy for the sake of controversy is just inviting more trolling and flamewars.

I have respect for true ideas, whether they are outmoded or fashionable or before their time. I don't care whether an idea is original or creative or daring or shocking or boring, I want to know if it's sound.

The fact that you seem to expect increased respect because of controversial opinions makes me think that you when you wrote about your support for infanticide, you were motivated more by the fact that many people disagreed with you, than by the fact that it's actually a good idea that would make the world a better place.

You remind me of Hanson (well, Doherty actually) on Libertarian Purity Duels

Libertarians are a contentious lot, in many cases delighting in staking ground and refusing to move on the farthest frontiers of applying the principles of noncoercion and nonaggression; resolutely finding the most outrageous and obnoxious position you could take that is theoretically compatible with libertarianism and challenging anyone to disagree. If they are not of the movement, then you can enjoy having shocked them with your purism and dedication to principle; if they are of the movement, you can gleefully read them out of it.

Comment author: Bakkot 02 January 2012 02:13:43AM *  3 points [-]

The fact that you seem to expect increased respect because of controversial opinions

This is not what I expect. I expect increased respect for having thought through ideas. I also expect that most people have come to conclusions differing from the LW mainstream on some ideas, and expect - or at least hope - that a willingness to express this is something respected.

that you when you wrote about your support for infanticide, you were motivated more by the fact that many people disagreed with you, than by the fact that it's actually a good idea that would make the world a better place.

The reason I chose to write about infanticide, as opposed to my position of Newcomb's paradox (one-box) - or more illustratively my position on the general shape of planet Earth (roughly a sphere), is that my position on infanticide is controversial and therefore more likely to prompt interesting discussion, whereas my positions on Newcomb's paradox or the shape of planet Earth are not. So yes, the reason I chose to write about infanticide was that many people disagreed with me, and in fact I was explicit about that in my original post. This does not mean I hold this position to be deliberately contrarian, and implying otherwise is insulting.

Comment author: Multiheaded 02 January 2012 09:08:00AM *  1 point [-]

...whereas my positions on Newcomb's paradox... are not

two-box

Let's not go off on that tangent in here, but two-boxing is hardly uncontroversial on LW: lots of one-boxers here, including Yudkowsky. I'm one too. Also, didn't you say you "want to win"?

Comment author: Bakkot 02 January 2012 07:05:05PM 0 points [-]

Good catch. Not what I meant; fixed.

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