Article about LW: Faith, Hope, and Singularity: Entering the Matrix with New York’s Futurist Set

Malo

Article about LW: Faith, Hope, and Singularity: Entering the Matrix with New York’s Futurist Set — LessWrong

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I think I've made it clear that I don't find offence in any of the particular lifestyle choices expressed in the profile (i.e., sadomasochism and polyamory), but I think it's more than an issue of mere presentation or the squick factor. My point is that the profile offers some insight into where following LW/SIAI/CFAR recommendations might take you. When somebody sets themselves up as an ethics and rationality expert their own lifestyle and character are going to be subject to especial scrutiny and rightly so. That isn't to say that people should be alarmed at sadomasochism or polyamory; what I tried to convey was that everything together - the quirks, the presentation, the personality - painted a picture of something altogether bizarre. That combined with the fact that this person is offering advice on how to live your life was the source of potential terror.

[anonymous]14y60

Based on your previous comment, I had guessed that you were squicked out by the presentation rather than Eliezer's actual lifestyle choices; thank you for clarifying. As I indicated above, I had a similar emotional reaction to the presentation.

I'm curious as to what underlying psychological factors caused us to react this way, and what subset of the population would also feel this kind of squick.

3fubarobfusco14y

You seem to be saying that the fact that "a picture of something altogether bizarre" was painted has something particular to do with the LW community — that there is something that the LW community could have covered up, or done differently, that would have prevented that picture from being painted. But the writer in question is in the business of gossip-mongering: providing entertainment in the form of bizarre pictures of social groups. This is not a truth-tracking endeavor. An effective gossip-monger can find something kinky and kooky about any group deemed sufficiently important to write about. Moreover, hiding your bi-poly-switch-trans-cuddle-nudist tendencies is not effective against gossip-mongers: if they can't call you an oversexed pervert, they will call you a sexually-repressed virgin who can't get laid.

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Article about LW: Faith, Hope, and Singularity: Entering the Matrix with New York’s Futurist Set

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Article about LW: Faith, Hope, and Singularity: Entering the Matrix with New York’s Futurist Set

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