Gabriel comments on Cult impressions of Less Wrong/Singularity Institute - Less Wrong

29 Post author: John_Maxwell_IV 15 March 2012 12:41AM

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Comment author: Gabriel 15 March 2012 09:16:05PM 15 points [-]

Some things that might be problematic:

We use the latest insights from cognitive science, social psychology, probability theory, and decision theory to improve our understanding of how the world works and what we can do to achieve our goals.

I don't think we actually do that. Insights, sure, but latest insights? Also, it's mostly cognitive science and social psychology. The insights from probability and decision theory are more in the style of the simple math of everything.

Want to know if your doctor's diagnosis is correct? It helps to understand Bayes' Theorem.

This might sound weird to someone who hasn't already read the classic example about doctors not being able to calculate conditional probabilities. Like we believe Bayes theorem magically grants us medical knowledge or something.

[the link to rationality boot-camp]

I'm not a native speaker of English so I can't really tell, but I recall people complaining that the name 'boot-camp' is super creepy.

On the about page:

Introduce yourself to the community here.

That's not cultish-sounding but it's unnecessarily imperative. Introduction thread is optional.