Eliezer_Yudkowsky comments on Twelve Virtues booklet printing? - Less Wrong

2 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 11 April 2009 02:40PM

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Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 11 April 2009 03:40:29PM 10 points [-]

You volunteering to write it?

What good is it to be convincing if you're forgotten? If I were writing about transhumanism, I would go for a Deep, Sober tone (just as Nick did with the WTA FAQ). Since transhumanism is silly, writing about it Soberly makes a startling contrast.

But rationality is already considered a serious subject; and so the 12V shows that it's possible to think about these matters in a different way than usual. The message is very clearly rationalist; the tone is not. You can go many places for dull, sober big words about rationality, and most rationalists will have already encountered them. Those who see something new in 12V may be inspired to check out the link on the back cover.

It's supposed to be strange. Strange gets attention. Strange sticks in the mind. Strange makes the truth memorable. Other suggestions are possible, I guess, but can the result be equally strange?

And: Promise that which you will deliver. 12V gives a pretty good idea of what happens to you if you start reading my other essays.

Comment author: SoullessAutomaton 11 April 2009 04:18:27PM 1 point [-]

In other words... 12V is not about teaching rationality, it's about marketing rationality?

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 11 April 2009 04:38:42PM 3 points [-]

It's about both, of course.

Comment deleted 12 April 2009 12:32:12AM [-]
Comment author: ciphergoth 12 April 2009 01:03:46AM 2 points [-]

We could have a go at doing it on the wiki. I actually think Wikipedia articles often achieve a very readable tone.