RobbBB comments on Ritual 2012: A Moment of Darkness - Less Wrong

35 Post author: Raemon 28 December 2012 09:09AM

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Comment author: TheOtherDave 26 December 2012 04:41:39AM 0 points [-]

Well, sure; I agree.

Let me put it this way: it's one thing to say "some people like X, some people don't like X, and rationalists are more likely to consider what they actually want and how to achieve it without giving undue weight to social convention." It's a different thing to say "rational people like X, and someone's stance towards X is significant evidence of their rationality."

This community says the second thing rather unambiguously about X=cryonics and X=atheism. So when cryonics, atheism, and polyamory are grouped together, that seems like significant evidence that the second thing is also being said about X=polyamory.

So I figured it was worth clarifying.

Comment author: RobbBB 31 December 2012 09:31:15AM 2 points [-]

Two more points:

  1. It's possible for a trait to be strong evidence both for extreme rationality and for extreme irrationality. (Some traits are much more commonly held among the extremely reasonable and the extremely unreasonable than among 'normals;' seriously preparing for apocalyptic scenarios, for instance. Perhaps polyamory is one of these polarizing traits.)

  2. Sometimes purely irrational behaviors are extremely strong evidence for an agent's overall rationality.