komponisto comments on Should you try to do good work on LW? - Less Wrong

36 Post author: cousin_it 05 July 2012 12:36PM

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Comment author: private_messaging 07 July 2012 06:17:51AM *  -2 points [-]

For interest of the discussion, here is the article in question

It actually is a perfect example of how LW is interested in science:

There is the fact that some people have no mental imagery, but live totally normal lives. That's amazing! They're more different than you usually imagine scifi aliens to be! And yet there is no obvious difference. It is awesome. How does that even work? Do they have mental imagery somewhere inside but no reflection on it? Etc, etc etc.

And the first thing that was done with this awesome fact here, was 'update' in the direction of trusting more the PUA community's opinion on women, rather than women themselves, and that was done by author. That's not even a sufficiently complete update, because the PUA community - especially the manipulative misogynists with zero morals and the ideal to become a clinical sociopath as per check list, along with their bragging that has selection bias and unscientific approach to data collection written all over it - is itself prone to typical mind fallacy (as well as a bunch of other fallacies) when they are seeing women as equally morally reprehensible beings as they themselves are.

This, cousin_it, is the case example why you shouldn't be writing good work for LW. Some time back you were on verge of something cool - perhaps even proving that defining the real world 'utility' is incredibly computationally expensive for UDT. Instead, well, yeah, there's the local 'consensus' on the AI behaviour and you explore for the potential confirmations of it.

Comment author: komponisto 07 July 2012 06:52:29PM *  4 points [-]

the manipulative misogynists with zero morals and the ideal to become a clinical sociopath as per check list, along with... [an] unscientific approach to data collection

A classic Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking right there.

Comment author: Rhwawn 07 July 2012 11:59:20PM 0 points [-]

I don't know, given the harm bad data collection can do, I'm not sure being a clinical sociopath is much worse.

Comment author: private_messaging 08 July 2012 01:32:11AM *  -1 points [-]

What ever data on physiology nazis collected correctly, we are relying on today. Even when very bad guys collect data properly the data is usable. When it's on-line bragging by people fascinated with 'negs'... not so much. It is a required condition that data is badly collected; the guys trying to be sociopaths does not suffice.