pedanterrific comments on Elevator pitches/responses for rationality / AI - Less Wrong

17 Post author: lukeprog 02 February 2012 08:35PM

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Comment author: pedanterrific 03 February 2012 05:19:28PM 7 points [-]

Yet people on this site have refused to back up their own claims with citations because apparently "I'm not worth bothering with".

I found this claim difficult to believe, so I looked it up. For the record:

911truther: Freezing things makes water expand and burst the fragile parts of your brain.

gwern: Freezing canard: proof you have not read the cryonics literature. Instant downvote.

911truther: If "the cryonics literature" (presumably explaining why freezing does not destroy the brain) actually exists why don't you link to it?

gwern: Because spending the time to look up references solid enough that they cannot be glibly rejected indicates that I think someone is worth educating, that I can educate them, or it's a sign of respect.

None of those three are true. So if you think you are right, you are free to bring your own references to the table.

Comment author: praxis 05 February 2012 12:47:31AM *  5 points [-]

I do wish we could discourage the attitude displayed here by gwern. It's pure ego to respond in this way to someone you deem a "troll". It certainly won't change their mind, and it will only spur them to comment more. Either ignore them completely after downvoting, or be polite in your reply. One might justify these posts as important to make sure that 911truther knows why he's being downvoted, but the aggression in them is entirely counter-productive and, frankly, is quite rude.

For the record, I do think people are a little over-eager to accuse someone of being a "troll" (I think it is much more probable that 911truther is simply ignorant) although I think moderation is warranted in this case.

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