Dr_Manhattan 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 04 February 2012 01:56:16AM 1 point [-]

Well, I would find it interesting, but as a point of order: maybe you should let him know you're doing this (even anonymizedly) so he can get help from a gang of his friends too?

Comment author: Dr_Manhattan 04 February 2012 02:16:26AM 0 points [-]

I have no intention to have this turn into a public debate out of a Facebook thread. This is a chance to improve my rationality and argumentation skills.

Comment author: pedanterrific 04 February 2012 02:24:06AM 1 point [-]

Yes... I took "there are some observers I care about" plus "I would appreciate some feedback" to mean 'I'd like some debate advice (which I will be applying)'. If that's not getting help from a gang of your friends, I don't know what is.

Comment author: Dr_Manhattan 04 February 2012 02:47:38AM *  0 points [-]

You're correct, it's a side benefit, but having a thread evolve into some kind of public debate looks silly. If public debate on such issues is desired there are order of magnitude better ways of doing it than this.

Comment author: Normal_Anomaly 04 February 2012 03:26:10PM 1 point [-]

I don't think pedanterrific is planning to have a bunch of LWers start commenting on the thread in support of atheism. I think he's expecting a bunch of LWers to give you advice in this thread, which you will then use in your own posts. And he thinks the rabbi should be given an opportunity to ask his own community for similar advice. To use a boxing metaphor, nobody else is going to start fighting, but you're going to have more coaches and your opponent should too.

Comment author: Dr_Manhattan 04 February 2012 03:36:08PM 1 point [-]

I got that, but having to tell him that there are a bunch of people helping, bring your friends, seems awkward in the context. I'd rather not have the help and just let people view the log as a post mortem, for improving my rationality. Another part of it is the fact that I'm actually doing ok in the argument (I think) and "calling for help" would look like/could be spun as a weakness.

Comment author: Normal_Anomaly 04 February 2012 03:44:51PM 1 point [-]

Okay then! That makes sense. Also, I support posting the log when the argument is done; I'd enjoy reading it and would be happy to comment.

Comment author: Dr_Manhattan 04 February 2012 04:18:29PM 1 point [-]

The third, compromise, option would be, if I end up using a suggestion from LW, to say "(I got this argument from talking it over with a a friend)", though I'm not sure if that goes far enough to satisfy standards of a fair fight people want to see.